Philip Morris Enthusiastically Supports Restrictions On Cigarette Smoking?!?
by Vince?Daliessio
We pointed out earlier that one of the most significant effects of the Clintons' anti-tobacco efforts has been a return of cigarette-company advertising to TV?(OK, that's a parody, but you have seen the real ads).
Now Reason's Jacob Sullum points out another instance of regulatory capture by the ever-resourceful global tobacco monopolist Philip Morris;
"(T)he Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, has the enthusiastic backing of Philip Morris, which thinks regulation by the Food and Drug Administration will help shore up its position as the leading cigarette manufacturer. Take that, Big Tobacco!
Waxman's bill, which has bipartisan support and a good chance of passing now that the Democrats control Congress, shows that politicians are happy to help big corporations hobble their competitors, as long as they can claim to be acting in the interests of consumers. This trick is especially easy in the case of tobacco, since its consumers are considered irrational by definition and therefore do not get to judge their own interests.
Waxman's bill would codify the advertising and promotion regulations issued by the FDA in 1996, when the agency was pretending it already had the authority Waxman wants to give it. (The Supreme Court disagreed.) Among other things, tobacco ads in publications read by minors would be limited to black text on a white background, as would tobacco signs in stores open to minors.
By impeding brand competition, advertising restrictions help keep market shares the way they are, which is fine?if you're Philip Morris. As an R.J. Reynolds spokesman put it, "If you eliminate ways to communicate with...consumers, that certainly benefits the market leader and makes it difficult, if not impossible, for those who aren't the market leader to compete.""
Previously, we have documented?Big Tobacco's?use of government to run upstart competitors out of business . Now that there is a "level playing field", Philip Morris wants the benefits all to itself. Thanks Rep. Waxman!